He was born and brought up in Aberystwyth and studied botany at the University of Wales under Professor Lilly Newton.
He moved to Bangor in 1953 to join the newly founded Marine Biology Station as a lecturer with Denis Crisp, and completed his PhD in 1957.
It was most valuable as an update to Newton's Handbook of 1931 had become out-of-date and this was required to identify the genera of algae to be found on the shores of the British Isles.
He joined the British Phycological Society [1] in 1955 and served as a Member of Council (1959 and 1974–1977), as Assistant Secretary (1959) and Hon.
At the Eighth International Seaweed Symposium, held in Bangor in 1974, he was a member of the organizing committee and secretary.